The invention relates to a roll-over protection arrangement for a motor vehicle including a selectively movable roll-over bar guided for vertical translational movement between an inoperative lower position and an operative upper position.
Several roll-over protection devices of this type are known, for example, from U.S. Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,726, German Patent Document DE-C-38 22 461 and German Patent Document DE-A-39 27 265.
To the extent that roll-over bars have become known in practice, for example, in the case of passenger cars but also in the case of tractors, they are manufactured from high-strength steel, partially with the use of steel tubes and partially with the use of sheet metal half-shells. This method of construction requires high expenditures and costs. The used structural elements are also heavy which is not only basically undesirable but also requires particularly strong driving devices for the fast moving-out of the roll-over bars so that the relatively heavy bars can be brought into their supporting position within a very short period of time.
It is an object of the invention to provide a roll-over protection device of the above-mentioned type which is not only relatively light but can also be manufactured at reasonable cost and, if necessary, can also easily be adapted to different vehicles.
According to the invention, this object is achieved in that at least the legs of the roll-over bar and the guiding elements consist of extruded profiles.
As a rule, extruded profiles are made of aluminum alloys or similar comparable materials. The manufacturing expenditures are relatively low. Nevertheless, high-strength structural elements can be manufactured which have a low weight. As will be explained in detail in the following, by means of the consequent use of extruded profiles and by a skillful nesting of these profiles in one another, a roll-over protection system can be provided which, also because of the smaller masses to be accelerated in the case of a roll-over, requires lower-strength springs which, in turn, results in a weight reduction.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.